Not really – the bait-and-switch gambit of apparently sending James Bond to sleep with the fish community in the new trailer for “Skyfall” is quickly undone when it becomes clear that Bond’s mission this time around is to sleep with French starlets and destroy foreign locales recover an in-the-wild secret hard drive containing the details of every MI6 agent before it goes to the highest bidder.

Where the previous teaser trailers, IMAX pimping and Olympic-piggybacking tv spots have played up the psychological drama aspect of the new, Sam Mendes directed Bond as if to indicate that this won’t be a glum shoot-em-up like the previous, unloved (but actually not that bad) “Quantum of Solace“, this trailer gets down to business by including some pretty major action and one classic prop with a…

This is the golden anniversary of “Dr. No,” the film that introduced moviegoers to the most famous spy of them all: James Bond of her majesty’s secret service. To mark the anniversary, we’ll be running edited excerpts from Bill Desowitz’s just-released ”James Bond Unmasked,” which features interviews with all six Bond actors. If you missed it, here’s Part One .

“There are moments of great luxury in the life of a secret agent.” That’s the opening line in Ian Fleming’s second novel, “Live and Let Die” (1954), and one of the hallmarks of the Bond franchise has been taking us vicariously to the most exotic places in the world. Jamaica was the first with its tropical eye candy, easy fishing, calypso music, plentiful beer and rum, and Caribbean cuisine. No wonder Fleming adored it (Goldeneye, his retreat, inspired the title of [Pierce] Brosnan’s first film in 1995)…

In 2008 Penguin released hardback editions of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. Before, the James Bond covers had been forgettable and very recently kind of a like a cartoon scribble with lots of bright colours and images. (These were the covers I had – no idea who published them since I don’t own those books any more)

Thankfully Penguin understood that things needed to change. They hired Michael Gillette who went and redesigned and redrew every cover. The end result was, and still is, pretty spectacular. When the books were released I remember Waterstones (back in the day when they had an apostrophe in there) giving away postcard packs of the covers. They went on my wall that day and are still up there. At first my Mum found it hilarious that I had a bunch of semi-naked women all over the place, now it’s normal.

It only took eight months and 319 posts, but the official 007 Twitter feed got around to mentioning Harry Saltzman, the co-founder of Eon Productions, which produces the James Bond film series.

OTDIBH: 1961, Eon Productions, the company behind the 007 series, was founded by producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. ‪

The 007 Twitter feed, remember, is the official face of Eon as Skyfall, the 23rd 007 film, comes out this fall. The official Twitter feed didn’t get around to mentioning Ian Fleming, James Bond’s creator, until May 28 (the 104th anniversary of the author’s birth). It took even longer to recognize Saltzman who supervised script development of the earlier Bond movies. He was the one, for example, who brought in writers such as Paul Dehn and John Hopkins to revise Richard Maibaum’s drafts for Goldfinger and Thunderball.

We’ve referenced Craig Henderson’s U.N.C.L.E. timeline that details 007-U.N.C.L.E. ties going back more than a century. With the news of the recent death of Norman Felton, executive producer of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., we decided to revisit that site, in particular the parts that dealt with Ian Fleming’s role in the 1964-68 television show.

Henderson’s research shows Fleming was quite interested for a time. Fleming’s first meeting with Felton was at the end of October 1962. By Nov. 21 of that year, according to an excerpt of Henderson’s timeline:

First presentation — 12 typewritten pages with a cover sheet reading “Basic Material Pertinent To… A New One Hour Television Series… SOLO. Assembled by: Ian Fleming and Norman Felton” — is sent by Jerry Leider of Ashley-Steiner to Jack Ball at J. Walter Thompson. (snip)

Fleming’s interest continues into early 1963. Also, lawyers already were doing research to ensure nothing in…

It’s no secret that James Bond is the world’s most stylish spy. Now London’s Barbican Center is celebrating half a century of the secret agent’s flair and style on the silver screen in a new exhibition called “Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style”.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, “Dr. No”, the exhibition gives a nod to the staying power of the 007 film franchise and pays “tribute to the British, European, and American craftspeople and designers who have created the look of the quintessentially British icon”, reports the Associated Press.

The 400 items on display include: his wardrobe of tailored tuxedos, the white bikini worn by the first Bond girl, dresses worn by different Bond girls, props, gadgets, and set pieces from the movies. “Designing 007” runs to Sept. 15…